Kendergarten
by Thaddeus Halstead
Summary: Tasslehoff ponders his younger days as a kenderkid. Set around the time of "Dragons of Summer Flame."


Kendergarten

Tasslehoff Burfoot was happily plodding about the streets of Palanthas, when his gaze was caught by the most tantalizing of market stands. It was the middle of the day, and the square was baking from the heat. Plunged right into the middle of rush hour, Tas found the most unusual objects just lying about. Amidst the hustle-and-bustle of the crowd, _things_ were easily jostled out of someone's belt or out of their pouch. Lucky that Tas had found them or they would have been lost -- or worse, stepped on and crunched into a million tiny pieces that would have been dastardly hard to pick up.

Yes, it was lucky that Tas was there to catch these missing objects. Their owners would be most happy when the elder kender was able to return their stuff to them. Humans were so bad at misplacing things -- not to mention elves and dwarves, who in Tas's opinion were notorious for leaving things or dropping them right into his pouch. Silly people, thought Tas.

But for now, Tas was concerned with discovering more about this strange market booth. The owner, a burly man with a sinister moustache, meandered about behind his stand, sweating like a pig. Ironically, he resembled the same animal. His porky hands held strange fruit up into the air, calling out odd names of which Tas never heard.

"Cantapple!" called the seller, his fat jiggling ferociously.

No one came to his stand.

"Hello there, sir, my name's Tas -- Tasslehoff Burfoot. What are you selling? I've never seen one of those before. What does it taste like? Where'd you get it? I once had an odd fruit; it tasted horrible. It looked like a gnome's head. My friend once killed a gnome. His name was Raistlin. Do you know him? Everyone knows Raistlin Majere."

The portly vender glanced down at the kender, whose topknot was swinging widly amongst the shoving of the oncoming Palanthians.

"Eek! Kender! Get it away!" he shouted, throwing the fruit into the air, and looking around for a guard.

The cantapple came down with a squelching _splat!_ by the booth beside him. "What a waste," muttered Tas, accidently slipping a handful of the cantapples into his pouch.

"Well then," the kender said, and padded off down the street, slipping between the people, dying from the sun's rays. As he marched around, looking for something exciting to do, Tas pondered his past. He was vividly reminded of his days as a wee little kender. He had to have been only six years of age, when he was in Kendergarten. He was just beginning the delightful years of discovering the knack for questions, when he joined his Kendergarten. A Kendergarten was a group of young kender who fancied being a part of a group. Normally, the kender would travel about town and find things on their own or under the leadership of an elder kender, but some found small groups in which they learned together, finding out answers as one. These small groups were called Kendergartens.

In his journey, Tas had been told that the term "Kendergarten" meant, translated vaguely in some obscure, archaic language, "Garden of Kender."

Tas had found this prospect of gardening young kenderlings amusing, to say the least. In fact, it was Tas who had coined the term in the first place. As of this moment, he was the only one who used it, but he felt that surely it would catch on like wildfire. Being fond of stories, Tas ended up telling everyone he met of his Kendergarten days. He was quite proud.

It was then that he was first affected by Wanderlust. And here he was now, an elder kender himself, and in Palanthas, no less!

These fickle muses licked at Tas's mind often, now that he was no longer tramping around with Tanis or Caramon. They had both gotten married and had children. The sudden prospect of marriage and home gnawed at the kender. He knew that one day he would follow his feet back to Kendermore. When that happened, perhaps Tas would marry and have a garden of kenderkids, himself. For now, he glanced around, saw the Tower of High Sorcery out of the corner of his eye and turned to prance in that general direction, gathering a number of "fallen" objects on his way.


End file.
